"War, Fascism, concentration camps, rubber truncheons, atomic bombs, etc., are what we daily think about, and therefore to a great extent what we write about, even when we do not name them openly. We cannot help this. When you are on a sinking ship, your thoughts will be about sinking ships." --George Orwell (1903-1950)[Thanks to Alex Constantine @ http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/]

Monday, March 10

Stratospheric Spike in U.S. Army's Gang-Banger Training, 2003-2006

The U.S. Army's lowered recruitment standards to attract cannon fodder for the White House's secretly "fixed" war in Iraq occasions murderous blowback in California. A hushed-up 2007 FBI report offers up the latest dirty laundry on George II's dirtiest war--if we're not counting the one he ducked in Vietnam.

Consider this translation of a 9 March 2008 La Opiniona article titled "Gang Members Get Trained in the Army."

LOS ANGELES – While hundreds of Mexican soldiers are deserting the army to join drug trafficking gangs, California is facing the opposite problem: A growing number of gang members here have infiltrated the U.S. Armed Forces in order to receive military training.

The numbers speak for themselves: In 2003 there were just 16 incidents of gang members in the U.S. Armed Forces, while in 2006 the total was 10,309, according to the study, "Gang-Related Activity in the U.S. Armed Forces Increasing," released in 2007 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Twenty-two official entities, including the Los Angeles Police Department, participated in the report.

This study, classified as sensitive and meant for use by official agencies, reveals the presence of street gangs like the Mexican Mafia (EME), the Mara Salvatrucha, Hells Angels, The 18th Street Gang, the Norteños, the Sureños, as well as various supremacist groups on military bases.

Two years before this report came to the light, the Ceres Police Department, in northern California, already knew its fatal results.

Howard Stevenson, sergeant of the force, was killed by Andrés Ray, a Marine who went AWOL from Camp Pendleton and who police say was a longtime member of the Norteños.

According to a report by the Ceres Police, Raya shot the sergeant five times in cold blood, with two shots to the head. Three other officials were injured in the incident and the gang member lost his life.

As a result of the bloodshed, local Police Chief Art De Werk told his staff to treat the anti-gang fight as an exercise in military strategy.

"Gang members are using the techniques and skills learned in the Army to commit crimes, and there is no doubt about that. The worrisome thing is that they endanger not only officials but all of society," says Gregory Lee, former supervisor of the national Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and private consultant in Los Angeles.... read more

Under increased pressure from the Department of Defense to meet its quota for the White House's "bogus" war on terrorism still waged in Iraq, the Army topped its 2006 recruitment goal by "lowering standards," although the Associated Press news service added this line: "...but high school diploma still required."

Really, AP; you should have that amnesia checked out. What about the CBS story you conveniently overlooked? You know, the one about the enterprising Colorado high school senior who ferreted out what appeared to be a high school diploma mill from where his army recruit told him to create on like the White House's war in Iraq?

In 2005, Denver high school journalism and honors student David McSwane wanted to see just how low the army would go to recruit the seventeen-year-old senior; so he presented himself as a dropout and after an initial office visit, McSwane recorded a subsequent phone call with the recruiter.

So he showed up at a Golden Colorado recruiting office saying he was a dropout.

No problem, the recruiter said — and told McSwane in a phone call he recorded — to create a fake diploma from a non-existent school.

"It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something — whatever you choose," the recruiter said.

So McSwane went on-line, got a phony grade transcript and a diploma with the name of the school the recruiter suggested and turned it in.

"I was shocked. I'm sitting there looking at a poster that says 'Integrity, Honor, Respect,' and he is telling me to lie," McSwane said.

Could the Army's 10,309 gang-bangers in 2006 all be high school grads, ya think? Or were a majority coached like McSwane by pressured recruiters to fabricate one of those special "diplomas"?

But, hey; they would have been industrious enough to go on-line, locate the desired document and print it. I was told seniors enrolled in my high school's Computer Basics 101 class accomplishing that series of tasks earned an A+ for the day.